On the border

Pat McIlmoyle grew tired of seeing friends and family members spar on the subject of illegal immigration.

So when his church, Raleigh's Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi, formed a coalition to study immigration reform, McIlmoyle signed on hoping his faith might lead him to an informed response.

Last month, McIlmoyle and 11 others took a weeklong trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to see close up the meaning of some of the economic and political issues surrounding the nation's immigration crisis.

"There's a lot of polarizing rhetoric and misrepresentation," said McIlmoyle, an engineer who works in Research Triangle Park. "As long as we're stuck at that level of debate, we're not going to get anything done."

St. Francis is one of the few churches actively engaged in dialogue around the immigration crisis.

Though most Christian denominations have issued statements urging the federal government to come up with some kind of comprehensive reform, few church leaders speak out on the issue.

One church that has is the Roman Catholic Church. U.S. Catholic bishops have forcefully championed the cause of illegal immigrants, saying that the right to work is a fundamental human need, and that more powerful nations have an obligation to accommodate immigrants.

Catholic views on immigration are shaped by the church's social teaching that all people are God's children.

But demographics also play a role. Nearly half of all immigrants to the United States are Catholic, according to a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. These immigrants have helped stem the flight of U.S.-born Catholics from the church and have renewed once stagnant parishes with young Hispanics.

And while a smattering of churches across the country have joined the sanctuary movement, pledging shelter for illegal immigrants who face deportation, the vast majority of congregations have remained mum.

"I'm befuddled by it," said George Reed, the executive director of the N.C. Council of Churches, a coalition of 15 Christian denominations that work together on racial, gender and economic issues.

To help Christians begin a discussion of immigration, the council will host a conference May 13, titled "From Hostility to Hospitality: Immigration and People of Faith." It will include sessions on the history of immigration in the United States, the hurdles to citizenship, and stories of immigrants themselves.

Conference planners noted that the Bible is far from silent on the issue.

The Hebrew Bible is replete with passages in which God reminds the people of Israel of their obligations to the aliens "for you were aliens in the land of Egypt," Leviticus 19:34. In the New Testament, Jesus identifies with outcasts and says, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me," Matthew 25:35.

"We want to have a religious discussion, not just a secular discussion," said Chris Liu Beers, a program associate with the council who is helping plan the conference. "These conversations are in large part absent from the church."

One reason is that such conversations are contentious.

Many conservative evangelicals would like to see the United States better enforce its laws and control its borders. Many mainline and liberal Christians have expressed support for a path to citizenship and a guest worker program for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

But the divisions aren't hard and fast.

At St. Francis of Assisi, plenty of people take issue with the views of those who traveled to Arizona. Bill Clark, a member who is a retired human resources manager from Wake Forest, said opening the borders to anyone who wants to come in makes no sense.